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Stories from SlateThe Founder of ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.Com Wants the Rest of the World to Feel His Painhttp://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/14/ship_your_enemies_glitter_the_founder_explains_himself.html
<p>Yesterday, a <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/InternetIsBeautiful/comments/2s9309/ship_your_enemies_glitter/">Reddit post</a> about an Australian website that allows customers to send envelopes full of glitter to their adversaries went viral. The site, <a href="http://shipyourenemiesglitter.com/">ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.Com</a>, quickly earned praise for tapping into something many of us probably feel but had never articulated: Glitter is kind of the worst. Or, as the site puts it succinctly, it’s &quot;the herpes of the craft world.”</p>
<p>Perhaps predictably, the site crashed as it was bombarded by people looking to see what the fuss is about. (And, if they were lucky, pay $10 to glitterbomb their foes.) Luckily, <strong><em>Slate </em></strong>spoke with<strong> </strong>ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.Com’s founder, 22-year-old Australian Mathew Carpenter, to satisfy our curiosity.</p>
<p><strong>Slate: So, why do you hate glitter?</strong></p>
<p><strong>Carpenter:</strong> I've received Christmas and birthday cards over the years from family and friends who put glitter in the cards. I hated it, and I wanted the rest of the world to feel my pain. So that's how the website was born.</p>
<p><strong>Have you done this kind of thing before?</strong></p>
<p>I'm 22 and have never been to university, but I am in Internet marketing and have worked on other sites before. The one I'll show you now is <a href="http://www.dickpicoftheweek.com/">www.dickpicoftheweek.com</a>. That said, I apparently have too much free time on my hands because now my plans for the next few weeks consist of sending stupid fucking glitter to terrible people.</p>
<p><strong>Even though it seems obvious, run me through how this whole thing works. Do you have a glitter distributor or do you just walk down to your local craft store and buy a few hundred pounds of it?</strong></p>
<p>Actually, I do have an Australian glitter supplier. People decide they want to waste money on sending someone glitter in an envelope, I get their recipient's information, hand-fill envelopes, and ship that stuff out.</p>
<p><strong>Are you on your own or is anyone helping you with this crazy plan?</strong></p>
<p>The website is 24 hours old and despite my cries for help I stand alone.</p>
<p><strong>What happened yesterday?</strong></p>
<p>A couple of hours after launching, the website was getting pounded with too much traffic for the server to handle so it crapped itself. We had people buying every minute until I took the ability to purchase down.</p>
<p>In this case I think [traffic exploded] due to the combination of a unique idea, creative copywriting, and evoking an emotion in the user.</p>
<p><strong>How many orders have been placed so far?</strong></p>
<p>Over 2,000 of the world’s brightest people have spent money on this service. It's good for business, but bad for society.</p>
<p><strong>Who, would you say, is your target consumer?</strong></p>
<p>People with too much disposable income.</p>
<p><strong>This might be a dumb question, but do you see this a long-term viable business plan?</strong></p>
<p>God I hope not.</p>Wed, 14 Jan 2015 22:26:00 GMThttp://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/14/ship_your_enemies_glitter_the_founder_explains_himself.htmlLaura Parker2015-01-14T22:26:00ZBusinessThe Founder of ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.Com Wants the Rest of the World to Feel His Pain221150114004businessstartupsLaura ParkerMoneyboxMoneyboxhttp://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2015/01/14/ship_your_enemies_glitter_the_founder_explains_himself.htmlfalsefalsefalseScreenshot from ShipYourEnemiesGlitter.comRevenge is a dish best served glittery.In the Video Game Industry Sexism Debate, the Time for Talk Is Overhttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/24/video_game_industry_sexism_the_time_for_talk_is_over.html
<p>In recent months, the conversation surrounding sexism in the video-game industry—once a progressive, much-needed call to arms to improve attitudes toward women in a male-dominated field—has lost focus. The industry-wide exchange of ideas has, by way of inaction, dissolved into a series of back-and-forth of personal stories, recycled and broadcast through the gaming press and presented in the guise of bona fide evidence that Things Have Not Changed. The problem with this is that it’s not helping anyone.</p>
<p>We already know that sexism in the video-game industry exists. This fact has been <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/double_x/doublex/2012/08/sexual_harassment_in_the_gaming_world_a_real_life_problem_for_female_gamers_.html">well documented</a>. The more pressing question is: What the hell are we doing about it? When this issue began to be publicly debated a few years ago, the industry agreed that it was important to keep talking about it. And that’s exactly what people did (including <a href="http://www.kotaku.com.au/2011/08/speaking-up-why-female-game-writers-shouldnt-be-ignored/">me</a>). Women from all parts of the gaming industry—players, developers, journalists, marketing consultants, and public-relations professionals—confessed their fears and reservations about the industry’s attitudes toward women, sharing personal stories and moments of prejudice they had encountered. The mere fact that people were speaking publicly about this issue for the first time was revolutionary. It was an important first step.</p>
<p>The November 2012 #1ReasonWhy <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2012/nov/28/games-industry-sexism-on-twitter">social-media movement</a>—in which women from around the world related their personal experiences of sexism in the games industry—was the natural culmination of this industry-wide sharing session, a bubbling over of dissatisfaction and disgust. It was the first clear opportunity to take the next step and move into action.</p>
<p>Yet nothing happened.</p>
<p>Instead, we seem unable to move past the point where we just talk about our feelings. Take, for example, the <a href="http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/PatrickMiller/20130620/194763/5_Gender_Moments_from_E3_2013.php">stories</a> about <a href="http://kotaku.com/the-creepy-side-of-e3-513484271">sexism</a> at the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo, the annual gaming industry convention in Los Angeles. (There’s always someone who thinks it’s funny to ask a girl if she plays video games, even at E3.) And while some of the stories were indeed shocking, coverage of these events adds nothing new to the debate. Instead, it continues to keep alive an outdated and embarrassing image of the gaming industry as a backwater of misogyny and sexual harassment, which it isn’t. Many of the stories do nothing more than expose the general lousy behavior of the men involved, rather than reveal anything bigger about the prevalence of sexism at E3 or the industry writ large.</p>
<p>Jerks are everywhere. Highlighting isolated incidents of jerky behavior only serves to prove this latter point, not a bigger one about the overall state of the industry itself. Finally, these stories are too self-serving to be of any value to anyone but the writer. If we write or publish personal stories illuminating experiences with sexism in the games industry, we need to be careful to ask ourselves who we’re doing it for and why. By continuously concerning ourselves only with the experiences of individuals—“this is what happened to <em>me</em>”—we’re not participating in bigger conversations that need to happen that concern all of us. How do these stories help to change decade-old attitudes and prejudices?</p>
<p>It is important to shed light on incidents of sexism, but only when doing so will help the higher cause in some way, and benefit more people than just those involved. It’s not enough to simply tell a story, expect people to be outraged on your behalf, and move on. If these truly were unforgivable instances of sexism in the gaming industry, then it shouldn’t be about personal exposure; rather, making sure the right people know: the organizers of E3, the publisher on whose behalf someone was acting when they did or said that sexist thing.</p>
<p>If we want things to change, we need to do more than just be offended that these things are happening. This involves selfless acts that benefit the gaming community as a whole. (Like, for example, Anita Sarkeesian’s <a href="http://www.feministfrequency.com/tag/tropes-vs-women-in-video-games/">video series</a> exploring female video game character stereotypes, their origin and their impact on gaming culture.) It involves talking to gamers about attitudes toward women, both online and offline; it involves talking to video game publishers and developers about workplace diversity and stronger female game characters. It involves talking to organizations like the Entertainment Software Association about banning scantily clad models at E3 in acknowledgement that the gaming audience is now made up of nearly equal parts men and women.</p>
<p>None of these suggestions is new. They’ve been discussed and debated about over and over again. They are brought up every time a new scandal breaks out, every time someone does or says something they shouldn’t. Yet we always revert back to talking about ourselves. It may just be that this is the easiest thing to do. But if we’re prepared to do nothing more, then we also have to stop expecting things to change.</p>Mon, 24 Jun 2013 16:02:47 GMThttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/24/video_game_industry_sexism_the_time_for_talk_is_over.htmlLaura Parker2013-06-24T16:02:47ZTechnologyIn the Video Game Industry Sexism Debate, the Time for Talk Is Over203130624001womenvideo gamessexismLaura ParkerFuture TenseFuture Tensehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/24/video_game_industry_sexism_the_time_for_talk_is_over.htmlfalsefalsefalsePhoto by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty ImagesThe 2013 E3 Gaming and Technology Conference in Los AngelesGame Over: With PS4, Sony Finally Beats Microsoft in Console Warshttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/12/playstation_4_vs_xbox_one_sony_finally_beats_microsoft_in_video_game_console.html
<p>It was during the final 20 minutes of Sony’s E3 2013 press conference on Monday—the last in a series of&nbsp;flashy&nbsp;showcases&nbsp;from gaming's&nbsp;biggest&nbsp;publishers—that&nbsp;the future of the video game industry was decided.</p>
<p>Sony delivered a strong vision for its next-generation&nbsp;PlayStation 4 console—a&nbsp;low price point of $399, support for independent developers via self-publishing capabilities, and some good-looking new intellectual properties. But more importantly, it put the focus back on&nbsp;the consumer.&nbsp;It was a&nbsp;particularly&nbsp;deft piece of subversion&nbsp;on Sony’s part:&nbsp;Jack Tretton, the president of Sony Computer Entertainment America, smiled&nbsp;(or was it a smirk?) as he delivered&nbsp;the&nbsp;news that the PlayStation 4 will not require a constant Internet connection or any kind of online check-in; that consumers will be able to freely trade, swap, and sell their games without any restrictions or fees; and that PlayStation Plus membership will carry over to the PlayStation 4. The former two are of particular interest since Microsoft's announcement that the PlayStation 4's rival, the Xbox One, will require both, <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/23/xbox_one_release_brings_complaints_about_backward_compatability_used_games.html">restricting users' ownership of games</a> by leaving it up to publishers to decide if they want to charge fees for swaps and sales and enforcing a periodic online check-in every 24 hours. (Sony twisted the knife a little regarding game ownership with a <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/11/sony_s_playstation_4_anti_drm_instructional_video_mocks_microsoft_s_xbox.html">video mocking Microsoft</a>.) And, while the console’s voice and gesture recognition system is certainly impressive, as <a href="http://www.slate.com/articles/technology/technology/2013/05/xbox_one_announced_steve_jobs_dream_device_has_arrived_and_it_s_made_by.html">Farhad Manjoo discussed on <strong><em>Slate</em></strong></a><strong>,<em> </em></strong>privacy concerns surrounding the Xbox One’s Kinect camera <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/05/28/germany_privacy_chief_peter_schaar_calls_xbox_one_a_twisted_nightmare_for.html">have since emerged</a>. Of course, Tretton didn’t&nbsp;mention the&nbsp;Xbox One by name,&nbsp;because&nbsp;he didn’t have to:&nbsp;Never before has the&nbsp;public sentiment in the console wars&nbsp;so decidedly favored one publisher over another.&nbsp;Sony, it seems, has won gamers over.</p>
<p>It’s always hard to believe a company when it says it “listens” to its customers. But Sony appears to be telling the truth, because the PlayStation 4's biggest asset is consumer-friendliness. Rumors about an always-on Internet connection for both Sony’s and Microsoft’s new consoles have been <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/features/why-always-online-isnt-consumer-friendly-6370099/">circulating</a> since last year, so even if Sony had plans for such restrictions, it had time to rethink acting upon them in light of the <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/gaming/comments/1bpbp0/im_glad_microsofts_creative_director_cares_about/">consumer response</a>—a response that Microsoft ignored. Secondly, and most important for the future of the industry, the PlayStation 4 seems to have been built with some recognizable artistic vision in mind, as evidenced by Sony’s decision to allow developers to self-publish on the platform instead of seeking out a third-party publisher with whom to partner.</p>
<p>Permitting self-publishing means anybody with a good idea will have a chance at letting that idea speak for itself, instead of wasting money and&nbsp;time trying to convince roomfuls of executives that this is indeed what people want to play. Sony also highlighted a series of new partnerships with independent developers, including one with <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008VXCPRY/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B008VXCPRY&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=slatmaga-20">Bastion</a></em> creator Supergiant Games, to demonstrate that it’s serious about supporting a more interesting industry, one that rewards innovation and risk-taking.</p>
<p>A lot of the innovation in the gaming industry comes from the independent space, where ideas, rather than budgets, are in the driving seat. It’s independent games and game makers who are pushing the boundaries of the medium and giving audiences more diverse experiences. (Thatgamecompany’s 2012 online adventure game <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B008CP6RWU/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B008CP6RWU&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=slatmaga-20">Journey</a></em>, for example, took out a <a href="http://www.gamespot.com/news/journey-takes-top-prize-at-gdc-awards-6406099">spate of industry awards</a> earlier this year, beating blockbuster franchises like <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003O6EDSM/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B003O6EDSM&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=slatmaga-20">Mass Effect</a></em>, <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0050SXX88/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B0050SXX88&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=slatmaga-20">Far Cry</a></em>, and <em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CD90R4K/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&amp;camp=1789&amp;creative=390957&amp;creativeASIN=B00CD90R4K&amp;linkCode=as2&amp;tag=slatmaga-20">FIFA</a></em>. The game pairs up users anonymously via the PlayStation Network and tasks them to work together towards a common goal, communicating via sound in place of speech or text. ) If a hardware maker cares about the future of the games industry, they care about the future of independent game development. Microsoft, as we’ve seen, does not.</p>
<p>And then there’s the price. In a final, triumphant moment, Sony announced the PS4 would launch later this year for&nbsp;$399, undercutting the Xbox One by $100. It’s not surprising Tretton left the E3 2013 stage amid the cheers and applause a crowd that had finally been given something to look forward to: Sony’s vision for the future of games is a sign of good things to come.</p>
<p><em><strong>Correction, June 12, 2013: </strong>Due to a production error, this blog post originally appeared under the wrong author's name. It is by Laura Parker.</em> </p>Wed, 12 Jun 2013 20:02:00 GMThttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/12/playstation_4_vs_xbox_one_sony_finally_beats_microsoft_in_video_game_console.htmlLaura Parker2013-06-12T20:02:00ZTechnologyGame Over: With PS4, Sony Finally Beats Microsoft in Console Wars203130612004xbox onemicrosoftsonyplaystationvideo gamesLaura ParkerFuture TenseFuture Tensehttp://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/06/12/playstation_4_vs_xbox_one_sony_finally_beats_microsoft_in_video_game_console.htmlfalsefalsefalsePhoto by Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty ImagesFans try out the Sony PlayStation 4 at the E3 Gaming and Technology Conference.